Jantschke: 'We’ve brought it on ourselves'

Seville - Tony Jantschke admits the Borussia Mönchengladbach players only have themselves to blame after slumping to their fifth successive defeat of the season on Tuesday.

The Foals defender was one of three different Gladbach players to concede a penalty in a humbling 3-0 defeat to Sevilla FC on UEFA Champions League Matchday 1, but even he believes the club’s bad luck has to run out sooner or later.

Question: Borussia were looking to turn a corner in the Champions League, but in the end you suffered a comprehensive 3-0 defeat. In spite of that, is there reason to be confident looking ahead to the coming months?

Tony Jantschke: It’ll hit us later that we played in the Champions League today, but we conceded three penalties and when you do that you’ve got no chance of winning.

Question: In Yann Sommer, Roel Brouwers and yourself, it was the experienced players of all people that were at fault for the penalties. Does it seems like something is going terribly wrong at Borussia?

Jantschke: At the moment everyone has their own issues to deal with. Everyone’s making basic errors, whether it’s me or Roel - irrespective of experience. We have to keep mistakes to a minimum. During times like these nothing goes for you. We know that from previous experiences because the ball’s going to the opposition and not to a team-mate.

Question: You conceded another three goals. The once watertight defence seems to have fallen apart. Can you explain why?

Jantschke: In general, it’s a really tough time for us defenders. For four or five years our defence has been our standout feature. We didn’t conceded many, but now we’re conceding a lot, it’s very unusual for us. We’re making too many simple mistakes. We’ve got ourselves into trouble and we have to get out of it ourselves.

Question: On Saturday you’ve got the derby with Köln of all things. Do you already fear the next defeat?

Jantschke: You’re never scared in football. There are times like these when nothing goes your way, when we’re not even lucky enough to take a point from a game. All our mistakes are being punished. We have to win again sometime.

Question: In spite of the latest setback, are you making progress? What gives you hope?

Jantschke: It’s hard to find something positive. Sevilla are a top side and haven’t lost here for a number of years. We had to make sure that we didn’t come here and roll over, especially in our situation. Not much is going for us right now, that’s obvious, but we have to accept it.

Question: The first half went quite well. What was Borussia’s game plan?

Jantschke: In the first half, we just tried to play. We didn’t want to complicate things playing out from the back because we knew Sevilla had good players that press well. We wanted to be compact and sometimes get stuck in. It went fairly well in the first half, but it’s a real killer when you concede 30 seconds into the second half. It’s a shame we didn’t keep our heads up because nothing major had happened really.

Question: How do you gain confidence as a team during a spell like this?

Jantschke: At the moment, the head plays a big part after five defeats on the bounce. It’s really, really hard to take and for some it’s the first time they’ve been in this kind of situation. Nobody’s going to drop by and dish out confidence. It’s something we have to work on ourselves and maybe a bit of luck will play its part.

Question: Is the pressure bigger than usual ahead of the derby?

Jantschke: It’s the derby with Köln, that’s got its own rules. What’s happened before goes out of the window. The derby’s always awesome. The pressure’s only going to intensify the longer we go without winning.

Question: What makes you confident that Borussia will quickly turn the corner?

Jantschke: It’s down to us. We’re not sugar-coating things because there’s nothing to sugarcoat. We’ve brought it on ourselves, but I’m optimistic that we’ll turn it around.